Ariska Zimel
Category:Lore History: Ariska Zimel is the ancestor of Ardan Zimel. His was a family of Blacksmiths from Freeport. They were fairly well known for their skill. Some time during his travels, Ariska came upon a battle between disciples of hate and a band of dark knights. As these two fought, Ariska spied the glinting blade of Soulfire within a campsite. He crept up and rescued the blade from the clutches of evil. Ariska carried the blade far from the fiery fields to his shop in Freeport, Zimel's Blades. It was there that he spent some time examining the blade, always knowing it had magic secrets, but never able to unlock them. A day came when the legendary Antonius Bayle, the Great Defender, visited Zimel's Blades. Along with him came Lady Shay, a beautiful Koada'Dal aristocrat. Antonius brought with him a claymore for Ariska to examine. Ariska examined the sword and found nothing but indecipherable runes unlike any he had seen before. He brushed his hand across the odd script. Unable to tell the great Antonius any information of its origins, the blade left with its owner. Later on that evening, Ariska was oddly drawn to another examination of Soulfire. Many times he had researched the blade and many times he found nothing. But this time as he grazed his hand over the blade something very strange occurred." As Ariska ran his hand across the blade, red runes appeared... runes that matched those of the claymore of Antonius Bayle. Suddenly, as Ariska tried to make sense of the situation, he fell unconscious and dreamt. In his arcane slumber, Ariska had a dark vision of a city of the undead. He walked untouched along the streets of Freeport. All around he could see lumbering undead searching for living flesh. These creatures could not see Ariska. As Ariska continued his nightmarish journey of Freeport, he could see the occasional Freeportian running or hiding for their life. Whether barricaded behind doors or standing defiantly in rows of shields and spears, the undead claimed the living as their feast. Not knowing when this nightmare would end, Ariska walked on. He came upon the floating tower of the mages, now a fortress to a ruler. Looking up, he spied an evil figure upon the balcony. This dark cloaked knight looked down upon the city of the dead.Ariska drew closer to the floating citadel and to his surprise the figure removed his hood and revealed himself to be Sir Lucan D'Lere, fallen crusader of the Knights of Truth. The fallen paladin unsheathed his blade and pointed it down towards Ariksa. As he smiled an evil grin, Ariska noticed the blade. Sir Lucan wielded the same sword he had found... Soulfire. As he realized this, Ariska fell into blackness and awoke. After the shock of the vision had dissipated, Ariska visited the Temples of Marr in North Freeport. After revealing his dream to the high priests, it was declared that Soulfire must be hidden so that the evil of the prophecy could not fall true. (From the quest dialog of Arden Zimel in The Stone Behind the Ankh) Zimel Family Curse As for the burden of the vision, all sons of Zimel have this dream nearly every night. We relive the horror of the city of the dead and its ruler of darkness, Sir Lucan, the Overlord of Freeport.